~ For all upcoming Sisterhood events, please see the main Sisterhood page ~
November-December 2024
Make Sisterhood Part of Your New Year: 5785
by Sisterhood Leadership Team member Marcia Muskat
For the fourth year in a row, Sisterhood member Rachel Shapiro took the lead at September’s Welcome Back Family Event. As present as ever, Rachel had everyone — young and not so young alike — creating personal vision boards that spoke to their New Year’s hopes and dreams. And the pizza, compliments of the EET Men’s Club, certainly didn’t disappoint.
As you contemplate your hopes and dreams for the New Year, make Sisterhood part of your New Year, starting with:
Meeting Our Leadership…
Sisterhood Board meetings 6:30pm Nov. 6 & Dec. 11
Come to Sisterhood meetings to help plan programs, pick up leadership skills and make new friends. Sisterhood members are always welcome.
Mah Jongg Fun and Games…
Weekday Learn & Play 11:00am, Nov. 7 & 14, Dec. 5 & 12
Learn the game or find people to play with at twice monthly Thursday morning games.
Sunday Mah Jongg Fund Raiser 10:00am Dec.15
Win top-score prizes at the 2nd annual 4-hour special Mah Jongg event with brunch. Buy raffles for causes worth supporting.
Evening Mah Jongg Game 7:00pm Jan. 22
By special request from many of our players, an evening of Mah Jongg is coming your way.
Partake in Social Action…
Food For Families 11:30pm Oct. 27, Nov. 17 & Dec. 8
Be part of a community (ages 12 and up, 12 -15 accompanied by an adult) that makes meals to feed hungry New Yorkers, a labor of love for more than 30 years.
Meet the Community…
Getting To Know Our Community (Zoom) 12:00-pm Dec. 4
Tune into our first interview of the season with Dr. Louise Klebanoff, a general neurologist who has served as Vice Chair of Clinical Operations for the Department of Neurology at Weill Cornell. Louise will share her thoughts about neurology, medicine and her love of all things NYC.
For more information and to register for our events, go to the Sisterhood page of the EET website
The Sisterhood of East End Temple
Belong. Connect. Grow.
Member of
Food For Families
by Celia Vimont
Thank you to all our volunteers who helped us kick off a successful start to the 2024-25 Food For Families season on September 29. We made 1716 meals that were picked up by a City Harvest truck and distributed to hungry New Yorkers that day.
Our next Food For Families session will be on Sunday, October 27, please note new time: 11:30am to 1:30pm. Advance sign-up is required (https://signup.com/go/ZEeEpgn). All participants must be age 12 or older (ages 12-15 must be accompanied by an adult) and everyone must wear a mask. Each participant should bring at least five loaves of whole wheat sliced bread (six loaves per person would be greatly appreciated) and 20 pieces of fruit (preferably apples and oranges) and wear a hat to comply with Department of Health regulations. Future dates are: Nov. 17, Dec. 8, Jan. 12, Feb. 2 and March 2. Food For Families is a great way for teens to get community service credits.
Your donations to Food For Families through Sisterhood (https://eastendtemple.org/contribute/) help us buy supplies to make meals.
Library Buzz
by Barbara Ringel
I am delighted to announce that I have confirmed noted award-winning author, Elizabeth Graver, as the featured speaker for our 21st Helene Spring Library Event, March 16, 2025. Elizabeth is a 2024 National Jewish Book Award winner for her outstanding novel Kantika, which she will discuss at our event. The novel is a beautifully written multi-generational saga that follows a Sephardic family in the early 20th century as they move from Istanbul, where they have been a wealthy privileged part of the Sephardic elite but now find themselves victims of unexpected, unimaginable loss, to Barcelona, to Havana, and finally to Queens, New York. It is a tale that explores loss, displacement, endurance, and family as home, a story of reinvention, healing, and love. The main character, self-reliant Rebecca Cohen, ties the story together with her tenacity, through grief and hope, as she faces multiple challenges yet manages to hold the family together and maintain its faith and traditions. We have a copy of Kantika in our library, and we will sell copies of the book that Elizabeth will sign at our reception. I look forward to hearing her share her exceptional novel, and I know she will be warmly welcomed.
Judaica Shop
by Fran Kolin
In the darkest part of the year, Chanukah gives us the chance to enjoy more light as we kindle the Chanukah candles! Sisterhood’s Judaica Shop will be prepared with many lovely candle options for your celebrations. We will have dreidels, chanukiyahs, small puzzles, decorations, and chocolate gelt to enhance your holiday experiences. We will also have a new 16-Piece Wood Chanukah Play Set, featuring a printed table scene, frying pan, latke, jelly doughnut, wooden gelt, dreidel, menorah, and nine candles. Come take a look, and shop The Shop!
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September-October 2024
L’Shanah Tovah – Connections, Collaborations, Leadership, and Giving
by Sisterhood Leadership Team member and Programming Lead Suellen Eshed
What a summer it’s been! In June, the Sisterhood of East End Temple leadership was represented at the Women of Reform Judaism Fried Leadership Conference in New Orleans. It was inspirational to sing, pray and learn with hundreds of women dedicated to Sisterhood, Spirituality and Social Justice. In July, our Sisterhood held a dinner to celebrate our accomplishments. The leadership team then began working on strategic planning, while reviewing our new leadership model.
We chose two recipients of our Birthday Fund, where donations made in honor of a birthday are given to a local NYC organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. We are giving $2,800 to two organizations: Girl Scouts Of America Troop 6000, a unique program serving families living in NY’s shelter system, providing weekly meetings where girls make friends, earn badges and learn skills at no cost; and City Living NY, which supports and empowers 21-year-olds who have “aged out” of the NY foster care system, with mental health counseling, safe furnished apartments, and college and job assistance.
This year, Andrea Viders joins Jodi Malcom as Birthday Fund Co-Director, focusing on recipient selection and organizing meetings between our donors and recipients to hear about the people that benefited from their outreach.
Our Annual Welcome Back Family Event will take place on Sunday, September 15, led by Rachel Gibbs-Shapiro, with snacks provided by Men’s Club. Join our fun-filled workshop where we’ll be building a collage-based vision board to help us make change – for ourselves or our families. See more information on our main Sisterhood page.
Mah Jongg is back, with twice monthly daytime games on Thursdays, starting September 5. All levels are welcome, and lessons are offered by our volunteers, led by Marcia Muskat. Learn now so that you can win prizes in our Morning of Mah Jongg coming up in December. Be part of this growing community!
By listening to one another’s voices, we collaborate, create leaders and come together in multiple communities. Check out our upcoming programs here.
The Sisterhood of East End Temple
Belong. Connect. Grow.
Member of
Food For Families
by Celia Vimont
Come join us as we start a new season of Food For Families on Sunday, September 29 from noon to 2:00pm. We will make sandwiches to be distributed by City Harvest to feed hungry New Yorkers. The need is great: according to City Harvest, nearly 1.3 million New Yorkers are struggling to feed themselves and their families and one in four children in New York City are experiencing food insecurity.
Advance sign-up will be required (look for the link and details in the eblast). All participants must be age 12 or older (ages 12-15 must be accompanied by an adult) and everyone must wear a mask. Each participant should bring at least five loaves of whole wheat sliced bread (six loaves per person would be greatly appreciated) and 20 pieces of fruit (preferably apples and oranges) and wear a hat to comply with Department of Health regulations.
Future dates for Food For Families are October 27, November 17, December 8, January 12, February 2 and March 2.
Help us feed hungry New Yorkers by donating to Food For Families through Sisterhood (https://eastendtemple.org/contribute/)
Library Buzz
by Barbara Ringel
As fall and the New Year approach, we have been busy readying our Helene Spring Library with new displays of books about the High Holy Days, in order to provide temple members with an opportunity to enhance understanding and to provide food for thought and conversation on the High Holy Days experience. We hope you will take the time to explore the many offerings. In addition, several new books in other genres have been purchased during the summer and are ready to be borrowed for a three-week period. One title of timely interest is Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew, by Emmanuel Acho and Noa Tishby. Published this spring, the book is a thought-provoking investigation into antisemitism that connects the dots between the tropes and hatred of the past to our current complicated moment. Another new novel, a historical fiction that has received high praise, is The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr. It is a haunting tale of the cost of survival, sacrifice, and the long-denied secrets of the past. Having read it, I can attest to its impact.
Looking ahead, a moving anthology, On Being Jewish Now, edited by author and publisher Zibby Owens, will be published November 1, and it will be a valuable addition to our collection. It is a compilation of essays by 75 Jewish authors about what it means to be Jewish since the tragedy of October 7. As Lynda Loigman, a recent Helene Spring Library Event featured author, stated, “It’s a collection of emotional, funny, sad, traumatic, and inspiring essays about what it means to be Jewish, how Jewish life has changed since October 7th, and the bonds and culture that our group shares.” All the proceeds will be donated to Artists Against Antisemitism, founded in the aftermath of October 7 by a group of Jewish authors.
Wishing everyone L’ Shanah Tovah!
Judaica Shop
by Fran Kolin
Shanah Tovah EET friends! Sisterhood’s Judaica Shop has all sorts of interesting things to add to your Jewish experience. Novels from past Library Event guest speakers, items to enhance your home, Jewish content board books for children, mezuzot, even Sisterhood’s own cookbook is available for purchase when the office is open. We also have many colors of free yarn for you to pick up and knit or crochet into hats and scarves for New York’s needy. We collect these items year-round, so there is no rush. Come take a look, and shop The Shop!